1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an improved ashtray.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a well known form of ashtray grooves are provided in the upper rim of an ashtray for supporting a cigarette. When the cigarette rests in the groove the burning end is placed above the ash receptacle. When the cigarette burns for a sufficient interval the centre of gravity is altered whereby it may tilt backwards and fall onto a potential combustible surface.
One form of ashtray for controlling the burning rate is known from U.S. Pat. 4241742. This comprises a series of horizontal grooves adapted to receive a cigarette and affect the rate of combustion. Other forms of ashtray are known, for example, from prior U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,675,662 and 4,239,049. Smokers may leave cigarettes on ashtrays and possibly forget them. Careless smokers may be responsible for accidental fires when an unextinguished cigarette falls off an ashtray onto a combustible surface. It is not always convenient for the smoker to continuously smoke a single cigarette and during smoking, smokers frequently use an ashtray for temporarily resting their cigarettes. Indeed the smoker may be performing tasks whilst it is inconvenient or impossible to be simultaneously holding a cigarette. For example, cooks or shopkeepers may require both hands for cooking or serving and resort to an ashtray as a temporary receptacle for their cigarette.
Smokers may extinguish part-used cigarettes by a pressure and twisting motion which damages the cigarette and therefore makes it unsuitable for further use. Occasionally smokers may forget that they have left a cigarette burning in an ashtray and this can represent a fire hazard. Accidental fires may also result from displacement of a burning cigarette from an ashtray wherein the burning end rests in the ash receptacle and a side of the cigarette is supported on a groove part of the ashtray. Such cigarettes may fall backwards out of the ashtray as the combustion process proceeds.
Not all ashtrays provide self-actuating or automatic means for reducing the combustion rate of a burning cigarette. The expression "reducing the combustion rate" is used herein to mean slowing down of the cigarette burning process but not extinguish thereof. Cigarettes allowed to remain upon ashtrays continue to burn at their conventional rate unless manually extinguished. It should be noted that manual extinguishing of a cigarette can be inconvenient and wasteful. It may lead to contamination of ash upon fingers. Attempts to manually extinguish cigarettes are usually permanent in the sense that any unused portion of tobacco is effectively wasted. It is believed that some smokers would resume smoking a previously extinguished cigarette providing it is not significantly deformed.
There is also the risk that other people, particularly young children, may pick up a burning cigarette from an ashtray through curiosity. Apart from potential harm to the child this may also lead to a more serious fire.
Many ashtrays currently in use are for smokers in public places, e.g., restaurants, hotels, public houses and the like. So ashtrays for safer smoking should be able to cater effectively for variations in cigarette length and diameter, and for cigarettes which are partially deformed in storage as may be the case with cigarettes stored in soft packets.